Living with Drought www.unce.unr.edu/drought/ Kerri Jean Ormerod, PhD Central Nevada Water Authority meeting January 11, 2018
2015 Nevada Drought Forum Former Gov. Brian Sandoval holds a news conference establishing the Nevada Drought Forum Photo: Chereb-Las Vegas Review-4/2015
NDF’s recommendations ① greater water conservation ② changing Nevada water law ③ improving the state’s monitoring and research data ④ providing financial and technical assistance ⑤ augmenting supplies via water recycling ⑥ expanding information sharing and improving outreach ⑦ clarifying procedures for declaring drought emergency
Living with Drought ① improve Nevada’s monitoring, research, and data reporting network ② expand information sharing and improve outreach
https://www.unce.unr.edu/drought/
Assessing Drought in the United States, CoCoRaHS, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7F6QwRqyVI&t=2s
Challenges in Nevada • Nevada has a very sparse hydrological and meteorological data collection network, with very few on-the-ground observations • Drought impacts are unevenly distributed due to our basin and range topography and highly variable precipitation and laws and policies that govern land and water use
• Drought is often best understood through impacts • Expansion of local condition reporting can improve the USDM • Drought Impact Reporter offers a methodologically- consistent database of on- the-ground reports
What can be done about drought? • Build a network of reliable observers to improve the spatial and temporal resolution of precipitation data • Facilitate local-scale reporting of drought impacts to support resource managers; Nevada State Climate Office, the authors of the USDM, and others • Build local, state, and regional connections and partnerships • Be better prepared to react to drought in Nevada
Get involved
Thank you Kerri Jean Ormerod Email: kormerod@unr.edu
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